


W is for Wonder

by Psychodelikas



Series: The Alphabet of Dreams [24]
Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: F/F, Shit is getting weirder and weirder, but it has a point!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 12:38:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13951713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Psychodelikas/pseuds/Psychodelikas
Summary: I rested my phone on my shoulder as I checked the new link Zane had just sent me. It was a forum I had also discovered but which I thought had nothing useful. “I know it too,” I told her, “but it’s full of rubbish.”“Or is it?”Zane challenged and I could see her smile and her reptilian green eyes sparkle.





	W is for Wonder

While Zanthe appeared to be getting better, for the following two weeks, I got worse.

I was convinced that her crazy talk had gotten through to me on a subconscious level because come Monday evening of the first week, I started having incredibly weird dreams. I wasn’t even sure they could be cataloged as dreams. It was more like right before I woke up, I saw snippets of strange people walking around, or heard weird bits of conversations. Naturally, I attributed everything to my overly-active imagination. But the annoying part was that I felt that everything I saw and heard was perfectly normal and that I was a part of it somehow.

Then I remembered that a very long time ago, my parents had had the opportunity of a lifetime but it had never materialized. I had been way too young to understand what was going on at the time but I did remember something about the man they were supposed to go into business with changing his mind and cancelling the project. The only thing I didn’t know was what the project had been about.

As soon as I thought about that nearly erased memory, I almost burst into the living room to demand my parents that they explain what had happened. I talked myself out of that stupid idea the next second. For the remainder of the week, I could only obsess over the failed deal. Usually, during my one hour lunch breaks, I would leave the building and go somewhere close to eat in peace but instead, I just remained at my desk to shamelessly surf the internet for any bits of information regarding the deal. I remembered how absolutely disappointed my parents had been after its cancellation so it must have been important enough to make the news.

And how! I had found numerous articles about how amazing things would happen after the deal was completed but oddly enough, all of the articles were pretty vague. What really pissed me off was the fact that the man in question was never named. He was only referred to as “the enigmatic and eccentric businessman.” Oh, and the project’s location was also not mentioned anywhere. I wanted to confront my parents about that during the weekend but I coward out of that as well.

At the beginning of the second week, I realized that there was one source I had not used so Wednesday evening, I gave Zane a call. _“Well, this is a nice surprise,”_ she said after the second dial tone.

“Yeah, well, I needed someone crazy to talk to,” I said.

_“Ah! Finally!”_ Zane exclaimed comically. _“You admit you’re just as crazy as I am!”_

“Now, hold on a minute! I never said that. I just said I wanted _someone_ crazy to talk with.”

_“You say tomato…”_

“I hate you, Zane.”

_“I love you more, Vala!”_

We laughed at that then I bit my lip before diving right into the problem. “Zane, do you happen to recall a mysterious project from a few years back? It’s a long shot, we were kids back then.”

_“Of course I remember,”_ she said, making my heart skip a beat. _“I still have the newspaper article my parents saved.”_

“You do?” I exclaimed hopeful. “Can I come by Saturday to read it?”

_“Or I could just scan it and send you the picture,”_ she chuckled.

“True,” I said with a half a mouth then smiled. “Zane, that would be awesome! Thank you!”

_“Always but can I ask you a question?”_

“No.”

_“Oh, come on!!!”_

“No!” I held my ground. “Sorry, Zane but not now. I mean, it could just be nothing so no questions until I’m sure I haven’t lost my mind.”

_“Oh, it could be nothing and that’s why you’re suddenly interested in the strangest thing which ever happened here,”_ Zane mocked. _“Sure, Vala. Let’s go with that.”_

“What do you mean, strangest thing?” I asked, my blood running a bit faster in my veins.

_“Okay, I admit, at the time, I couldn’t care less but I never forgot about it,”_ she began. _“Over the years, I’ve kept revisiting the article and of course, tried the net. Surprise, surprise! I found nothing useful. Except!”_ I heard her typing then my own computer chimed. _“For this.”_

I rested my phone on my shoulder as I checked the new link Zane had just sent me. It was a forum I had also discovered but which I thought had nothing useful. “I know it too,” I told her, “but it’s full of rubbish.”

_“Or is it?”_ Zane challenged and I could see her smile and her reptilian green eyes sparkle. _“Check out user TheHiddenDeal’s replies. I mean, really pay attention to them.”_

I sighed but did as instructed nevertheless. I only read three of the replies on the forum’s first page. “It’s just nonsense,” I said annoyed. “I mean, the guy takes other people’s answers and asks stupid questions like this one.” I began reading. “You say that the businessman changed his mind, closed up shot and left. What if he never closed up shop or left?” I stopped reading. “That’s all the guy does as far as I can see.”

_“Exactly!”_ Zane exclaimed excited. _“What if it’s deliberate? What if he knows something but can’t say anything? In that case, he would be doing exactly this: proposing the opposite of everything everyone’s saying.”_

“That makes no sense.”

_“It does if he wants to tell the truth without actually telling it.”_

I looked at my phone’s screen like it were insane. “Okay, Zane, I’m gonna press pause now. Take your time with that scan, I don’t need it right this instant. Talk to you later.”

_“You got it!”_ she said the hung up. The way she said though made me picture Zane with a wide smile on her face.

I groaned annoyed and wanted to close the forum page. But I couldn’t because a rather long post caught my eye:

 

_Okay, guys, here’s the deal. I was part of the team who was supposed to start constructions on this project. It was a hotel! Nothing more but a five star hotel. It was supposed to be really fancy too. But the dude in charge had massive debts to pay and disappeared before constructions could begin in order to do something pay off the money he owned. That’s the big mystery. You’re welcome._

Then _TheHiddenDeal’s_ reply made me stare at the screen for a very long time:

 

_So according to you, a hotel was supposed to be built but because the owner had debts, the whole thing was cancelled before constructions could start. What about the foundation? What if the foundations were already in place but the actual building was cancelled? What if there’s something there to hint anything about anything? I mean, it’s not like it’s any secret that the castle was to be built in the forest at the edge of town. Who’s to say there’s no trace of it left?_

 

The rest of the replies were a mini-war between the original poster and _Hidden_ but I wasn’t interested in those because this mysterious person had just given me everything I needed. A location. Then my brain took over and argued that it was just wishful thinking. Whoever was behind the user could have made everything up.

My point of view would change drastically later that evening because Zane kept her word and sent me the scanned copy of the article. I devoured every letter and was shocked to see that strange user’s words in an official piece of news. A hotel-type castle _was_ supposed to be built in a special patch of the forest surrounding the city. It had been checked and change to accommodate the new building and foundations _had_ been established! The only thing left was to build the castle.

I looked at the date. I would have been no older than nine at the time the article was written.

That night, I dreamt of a beautiful library, circular in fashion, with books ranging from old to brand new all over the place. And in the middle of that room was the most handsome man I had ever seen. One of his eyes was the color of ruby, the other gold, exactly like my mismatched hair. I woke up out of breath and my heart pounding in my chest. 

*****

***                ***

*****  

Four days passed since I had that weird dream. In addition to being my new obsession, it made me do a lot of mistakes at work which was not good for anyone. I decided the time had finally come to ask my parents about what really had happened.

As we were serving dinner, mom noticed I had no appetite. “What’s wrong, Valaria?” she wanted to know. “You’ve barely touched your food. Don’t you like it?”

I looked at her and dad for a moment, thinking hard on what to answer. “What was the deal about that castle in the forest?” I demanded out of the blue.

_Smooth, brain. Real smooth…_

Both mom and dad stared at me like I were from another planet. I pressed my lips into a line and swallowed hard, waiting for the other shoe to drop. They exchanged a glance.

“It’s been over a decade since that deal,” dad said. “What on Earth could have gotten you interested in that now?”

“Well,” I said, “I remember you telling me that this would change our lives forever. And then, nothing happened.” I shrugged. “I guess I just want to know why things didn’t work out.”

To my relief, mom nodded her head in agreement. “I suppose you’re old enough now,” she said. She set aside her cutlery and regarded me with a serious expression. Dad did the same. “Back then, we were approached by a man who wanted to build an exotic hotel in the form of a castle, in the forest around the city. We were more than happy to meet and discuss the details and so we did.” Mom smiled fondly at the memory. “I have to admit, your father and I liked the man immediately because he reminded us of you.”

I felt my heart stop for a moment. “Why?”

Dad chuckled. “He had one eye red, the other yellow,” he said then pointed at my head. “Just like your hair.”

_Holy shit!_ I forced myself to keep my emotions in check. “What happened next?”

Mom shrugged. “Nothing happened.”

“I don’t understand,” I said frowning.

“One minute, all was going according to schedule. Then, he just disappeared. Vanished. We had to stop everything.”

“The dude disappeared without telling anyone?”

“I’m sorry to say so but yes.”

I laid back in my chair, more disappointed than I had ever been in my life.

“It’s a shame, really,” dad said after a moment of silence. “The things he had planned for that castle were truly amazing. Now it’s only another item in the _‘could have been’_ list.”

“Can you take me there?” I heard myself asking.

“What?” mom and dad exclaimed at the same time.

“The castle,” I said, looking at that. “Could you take me there? I know it’s a long drive and we have to be careful with gas and everything but it would really help if I could see the place. Please,” I added.

Mom regarded me carefully. “You still haven’t told us why this is so important to you, Valaria.”

I pressed my lips into a line. “I don’t know, mom,” I said truthfully. “I really don’t know but I feel like… I feel like this is something I need to see, you know?”

Mom looked like she wanted to add more but dad didn’t let her. “I’ll drive you there first thing the next weekend.”

“But!”

“No buts,” he said casually. “You said so yourself. We have to be careful with gas and it is a very long road. I can’t take you now and certainly not during week days but I can next weekend. First thing Saturday morning, what do you say?”

I tried smiling back as best I could but as soon as I got back to my room, I sent Elaine a quick e-mail apologizing for the hour and informing her that I would not make it to work on Tuesday because I was feeling very sick. After that was done, I e-mailed Zanthe and ordered to make the necessary arrangements at her workplace for the same day. If there ever was a time when I truly hated Monday, it was the next day.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so very much for still being here!


End file.
